Recently, I actually got off my butt and did something in honor of Ted Kennedy. I picketed in front of a Whole Foods for healthcare reform. It was organized by some unions.

So, we're out there, and this hippyish guy who supposedly works for Whole Foods comes to "hold a conversation". He ends up arguing with the ladies. (I just continued to hold out my sign to street and cars beeping by.)

But the dude was actually defending the Mackey care, there. And I'm thinking, is this guy really serious that Whole Foods has offered him the best healthcare he's ever received in his working career? If he's paying for that high deductible plan, then he's getting screwed.

the article wrote:

1) General Medical Deductible for 2009 = $1,300.00! That means that you, minimum wage earning worker, must pay $1,300 of your own money before you get any coverage applied for medical services. After that for in network visits, the coverage rate is 20/80, up to a maximum of $4,600 out of pocket for the year. This means that if you get charged $10,000 for a special hospital test (which has happened to me), you are still liable for... $2,000!

Check out what Roger Hickey has to say about the Repubs' attempts to use Ted Kennedy's death to get a watered down health care bill passed. Roger Hickey is Co-Director of the Campaign for America's Future: http://www.ourfuture.org.

Until last year, Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s health care bill (co-authored with with Rep. John Dingell) was a bill known as Medicare for All. Not expensive private insurance for some, but Medicare [a public insurance plan] for All. Senator Kennedy encouraged candidate and then President Obama to make health care for all his first priority -- during the campaign and as he took office.

And Ted Kennedy remained in charge as his HELP (Health, Education and Labor and Pension) Committee wrote -- and then passed -- a new health care bill with a strong public insurance option for those who want it.

I feel the need to remind people of all this because conservatives, and especially Republican Senators, are trying to promote the idea that if only Ted Kennedy were still actively involved in the health care reform effort, he could have gotten the Democrats to fold and embrace a weakened “bi-partisan” compromised health reform strategy. And some are urging that the best tribute we could construct to the great man’s memory is to pass such a watered-down health bill that could win the support of a large number of conservative Republicans.

Media Matters has done a good job of tracking and responding to the crocodile tears of Republicans, keying off of a Politico obituary that repeats the conservative spin that “without Kennedy, Democrats were less willing to make the concessions needed for true [health care] compromise.” But whatever Politico’s role, their journalism certainly picked up on the boldly outrageous statements of important conservatives. One by one, Media Matters’ quotes Republicans from Orin Hatch to John McCain, lamenting that Kennedy’s passing has deprived them all of a “reasonable” Democrat who would have won Republican votes by getting rid of the public plan or making the cost of “reform” dramatically smaller.

Mr. Hickey goes on:

Let’s get another thing clear:

Republicans don’t want a deal. They want to kill health reform.Democrats, especially a few in the Senate Finance committee, have for months been reaching out to Republicans with the hand of hopeful bi-partisanship. And in recent months, conservative Republicans have made it clear that if Democrats (like Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus) are going to continue to reach out the hand of compromise, they are ready to bite it off.

I don't really understand why so many people are so against health care for all. Ok, I understand why some rich business owners don't want it and why a few other groups (yes, mostly full of rich people), but any other reasonable person is leveling on utter stupidity to not want some changes to our present health care system.

Personal example: my husband works for a university and has a "good job". They provide health insurance as part of his benefits package. So he doesn't have a monthly premium. But, he does have a $500 deductible for doctor's visits and some other $1000 deductible that goes towards tests and such. And $150 deductible on medications. Plus the 20/80 co-pay. He's on 3 monthly medications and we pay about $160 a month out of pocket for those (one of his meds isn't yet available, in any form, on the "preferred" drug list, so we have to pay a huge co-pay on that one). In any given year, its not unbelievable for us to pay $2000-$3000 towards his doctor visits and meds. And his insurance requires that the entire deductible be paid BEFORE anything at all is covered by the insurance. So, if he gets sick in Jan. we have to pay a ton before anything starts to get partially covered. The kicker is that his job doesn't cover me or our son. For us to be added to the package we would have to pay about $600 per month and triple each of the deductibles. So that would mean literally $590 per month for the premium, $1500 paid to them before one single penny of doc visits are covered and $450 before meds. Oh yeah, and their mental health deductible is $5000 bucks. So, I don't have any insurance coverage. Nada. All these people who bitch and moan about it can afford to pay the above mentioned prices and obviously don't mind doing so.

Health care and doctor visits are literally a luxury for me. And for a lot of people.

_________________You can sing the praises of women all day long, but as long as you put a fertilized egg ahead of [their] welfare, you do not really care about them.-Dori 4/07

Lefty, that is outrageous. And I am sure it is this way for many people in America.

I'm sure that $1.4 million health care is paying out each and every day to keep legislators in their corner makes a difference. But added to that, I do believe wanting to defeat Obama is a driving force too.

'Centrist' Democrats are only concerned about their positions in Congress. Rs are doing all they can to take Obama down. If he fails on Health Care, he is in a weakened position on literally everything.

I hate to see the lack of empathy in American people. Is that putting it mildly? When I talk with people, they literally don't give a fig about anyone but themselves. My family, my world. Little do they understand how close they are to losing that complacency with just one illness or accident.

It isn't only teenagers who believe nothing bad can happen to them! Life does have it's surprises and not all of them are good ones.

I have written and called everyone I can think of with the message--strong public option! Let's hope those progressives fight like their own lives depend on it. We do have some wonderful fighters in Congress, can they win the day?

My family, my world. Little do they understand how close they are to losing that complacency with just one illness or accident.

SO TRUE, DORI! That very attitude among so many Americans is one of the reasons we're in such a mess today. It really accelerated with Bush and Iraq. Nobody seems to care that young Americans are still dying in both Iraq and Afghanistan....and for what? Really, for what? Before Iraq, we as a nation shuddered to contemplate another Vietnam. We hid our faces when we heard the possibility of "ground troops being sent in." Great crowds demonstrated against such a possibility. Now, it's no problem. We've become so insensitive to things that don't touch us personally whether it's an American soldier dying or another American being denied health care. I think of Scrooge saying with a smirk, "Well.....if they would rather die, then let them die...and decrease the surplus population!"

When disaster strikes us personally, though, then we look around in a dazed fashion and wonder "how did it ever come to this?"

I can tell you how it "came to this..." It came to this through a complete lack of care for our fellow human beings...NOT CARING! And it may get a lot worse before it gets better.

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

With Congress returning from recess to consider health care legislation and the President set to deliver a major address on the subject to both chambers tomorrow, it's more important than ever to get word out on why a public option is so important and what can be done to push for it. Here's a short video that may be helpful: WATCH AT THE LINK!

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman